Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...Voters for the second time in two weeks cast ballots Tuesday to replace former Rep. Eric Swalwell, this time in a special primary election to fill the remainder of this year’s term. Early returns Tuesday night showed State Sen. Aisha Wahab leading with 42.63% of the vote.
Eleven candidates appeared on the ballot for Congressional District 14, including several candidates who previously ran in the June 2 primary election for the new term. The district covers parts of the East Bay and Tri-Valley, including cities such as Fremont, Hayward, Dublin, and Livermore. Repeat candidates running in both primaries included Democrats Wahab and BART Board President Melissa Hernandez. Returns Tuesday night showed Hernandez with 16.76% of the vote.
Swalwell abandoned his seat earlier this year after resigning and dropping his gubernatorial campaign over sexual misconduct allegations made against him by multiple women.
At the Castro Valley Library on Tuesday afternoon, Hayward resident Rana Othman told this news organization that she voted for Wahab in both primaries.
“She’s the only person that’s spoken about Palestine and that was my criteria,” Othman said. Other candidates, Othman said, were not as outwardly against Israel’s war with Hamas. She called the war a genocide of Palestinian people, and said Wahab would fight to cut off taxpayer funding to Israel.
“Regardless of how anyone feels about Israel, we would want our tax dollars to benefit us here,” Othman said. “It’s nice to see someone standing up for her principles and not backing down.”
Of the more than 430,000 registered voters in the special election, Alameda County Registrar Cynthia Cornejo said her office received more than 109,000 mail-in ballots by Monday evening.
Dublin resident Ken Yee, 56, voted for Hernandez at the Dublin Civic Center Tuesday afternoon.
“She knows the issues, especially for Dublin,” Yee told this news organization. “I really don’t know that much about the other candidates. I’m just going by what I know.”
Yee has lived in Dublin for nine years, which included during Hernandez’s tenure as the city’s mayor. He said he voted for Hernandez because he liked her as mayor, and said she would understand the Tri-Valley’s issues better than her competitors.
“The biggest thing for me was keeping it local, especially to Dublin and the Tri-Valley,” Yee said.
He called Swalwell’s abrupt fallout from public office unfortunate for the district’s residents.
“Hopefully we get better people with better integrity in there,” he added.
Other repeat candidates appearing on the special election ballot include Democrat Rakhi Israni, a first-time political candidate who loaned her campaign over $1 million of her own money; and Republicans Wendy Huang and Dena Maldonado.
Dublin resident and Republican voter Russell Taylor told this news organization Tuesday at the Dublin Civic Center that Huang was his choice for both primaries.
“It looked like she would be best to support our area,” Taylor said. “She’s for limited government, which is better than more government.”
Other candidates campaigned against the Trump administration and for more progressive policies, such as universal healthcare — policies which he opposes, Taylor said.
“This isn’t an election about President Trump, this is an election for the House of Representatives,” Taylor said. “They made the election about something that isn’t on the ballot.”
Danny Magalhaes, a 65-year-old Dublin voter, again cast his ballot for Wahab on Tuesday at the civic center. He also voted for Wahab in the June 2 primary. Having worked for several years in a management position at the city of Hayward, Magalhaes said he’d personally worked with Wahab in the past during her time on Hayward City Council. As a labor-aligned voter, Magalhaes said it was his personal experience with Wahab earned his vote.
“I like how she looks after people,” Magalhaes said. “I agree with her on a lot of her platform.”
Latest returns from the June 2 primary showed Wahab with more than 38% of the vote, likely sending her to the November general election against Hernandez, who had received about 17% of the vote. If results from Tuesday night hold, Wahab and Hernandez could face off in both the Aug. 18 special general election and the Nov. 3 general election.